blown gasket/head?
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blown gasket/head?
1999 F150 Lariat 180k miles. loaded 5.4L V8. Has blown gasket or heads. Running rough then OK, blowing white smoke when registers hot. Owe $5000 to used-car dealer finance. No warranty (I know, stupid, right). Suggestions on whether to keep,fix, replace engine or voluteer repo. Low on funds. Any suggestions appreciated.
Last edited by Cvalencia; Jan 22, 2010 at 04:35 PM.
Technical Article Contributor
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,770
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From: Michigan
Well the block is cast iron and the heads are aluminum. Could change the head gaskets for a couple hundred total in parts if you do it yourself and if the heads are good.. But honestly like the others said it's probably just as easy to R/R the engine for a few hundred more.
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 69
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From: Lowell, IN
I am going through this right now. I finally decided to do the head gaskets but mine is not blowing steam. If I were you, I would put a used engine in there as these guys have suggested.
If your blowing steam tehn you are probably going to have to have some head work done, at least milled. So by the time you do that and but all the stuff you need to do the head gaskets, you might as well do the engine replace.
While you probably can do the head gasket for a couple hundred, in reality it doesn't really come out that way. By the time you decide that you better throw the water pump in while your doing the head gaskets and replace the other little things that need to be done it ended up costing me about $450.00to buy everything.
Just so you know, I bought a water pump and a sepentine belt and both head gasket. So that did run the price up a little bit. Not to mention I didn't realize that the valve cover gaskets come with both sides in the package so I bought two packages (got two sets) and the water pump came with the seal and I had bought a seal. So that's all about $40 I didn't have to spend.
My suggestion is don't let it be repo'd. That will not be good for you at all. You will still need a vehicle and now you just had one repo'd. You could fix it with a good used engine for probably $800-$1200, You could fix it yourself for between $300-$500 but I really think that this price will climb by the time you get done at the machine shop.
Good Luck. I feel for ya man.
If your blowing steam tehn you are probably going to have to have some head work done, at least milled. So by the time you do that and but all the stuff you need to do the head gaskets, you might as well do the engine replace.
While you probably can do the head gasket for a couple hundred, in reality it doesn't really come out that way. By the time you decide that you better throw the water pump in while your doing the head gaskets and replace the other little things that need to be done it ended up costing me about $450.00to buy everything.
Just so you know, I bought a water pump and a sepentine belt and both head gasket. So that did run the price up a little bit. Not to mention I didn't realize that the valve cover gaskets come with both sides in the package so I bought two packages (got two sets) and the water pump came with the seal and I had bought a seal. So that's all about $40 I didn't have to spend.
My suggestion is don't let it be repo'd. That will not be good for you at all. You will still need a vehicle and now you just had one repo'd. You could fix it with a good used engine for probably $800-$1200, You could fix it yourself for between $300-$500 but I really think that this price will climb by the time you get done at the machine shop.
Good Luck. I feel for ya man.